Good day from Denver, where it’s scalding hot for us Minnesotans (first time I’ve referred to myself that way, and it kind of freaks me out).

So my colleagues and I were just walking through 16th Street Mall and Lawrence, and the entire Avalanche sales crew is out in force with Avs stickers and fliers essentially begging people to buy tickets for tonight’s game and a possible Game 6.

That’s something we’re not used to in Minnesota. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the Wild’s sales staff.

That’s got to be a sign of the downtrodden economy, right? I mean, this is a good hockey city — two Cups since 1996, an ice sheet full of living legends — and it hasn’t sold out the playoffs yet?

Just got back from the rink, and only a handful of guys were there. The only heavy-hitters were Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Mikko Koivu, Kim Johnsson and Niklas Backstrom, but none went on the ice.

The Wild will again dress two extra in warmups tonight, believed to be Matt Foy and Benoit Pouliot.

As for Colorado, coach Joel Quenneville said it’s a “strong option” that Jordan Leopold will play tonight, perhaps for Jeff Finger, who isn’t playing well.

Paul Stastny has also been much maligned in this series, both for his no points and four shots, and the initial mistake that led to Joe Sakic pinching in en route to Brian Rolston’s shortie last night.

The Denver Post column was an issue at the skate as Ch. 5’s Rod Simons was working on a feature for 5 o’clock. An unshaven, barely conscious, non-tie-wearing Russo also might have made a cameo.

Also, Derek Boogaard went after Cody McLeod pretty good for not playing the game “with respect.”

You can read about that tomorrow. We talked to trainer Don Fuller a lot about what his methods are for getting the players replenished for tonight. Pretty interesting stuff.

Nick Schultz was on the ice again, but he looks like he needs to gain a lot of weight. He looks famished.

They need to get him on a sportswriter’s diet. He’ll be back to his old weight by Game 5.

Laterz!�

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Pregame skate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.